A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Effect of scan strategies on the tribological properties of maraging steel manufactured by PBF-LB
Authors: Nath, Ananya; Nayak, Chinmayee; Sharma, Ruchi; Anjum, Muhammad Ammar; Ganvir, Ashish; Salminen, Antti; Sarkar, Sagar
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Tribology International
Article number: 111017
Volume: 213
ISSN: 0301-679X
eISSN: 1879-2464
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2025.111017
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: No Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Partially Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2025.111017
The study reports the effect of strip and chessboard scan strategies on microstructure, hardness, and wear performance of PBF-LB maraging steel. A chessboard pattern with 3 mm width resulted in isotropic microstructures with equiaxed grains. Relatively smaller grain size in 3 mm strip pattern than chessboard pattern was due to narrower scan width and higher cooling rate. The 3 mm strip pattern exhibited higher hardness, resulting in higher Coefficient of Friction and lowest wear. In contrast, the 6 mm chessboard pattern resulted in lowest hardness, attributed to its coarser grain. The strip pattern exhibited a more significant peak shift due to nonuniform heat distribution. The wear mechanisms were studied using SEM and EDS. Striations and microcracks were observed for chessboard patterns.
Funding information in the publication:
The authors acknowledge funding support from the project Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assisted Process Monitoring of Multi-Material Digital Manufacturing (AIMM), funded under the Seed Funded UTU activities within the Ministry of Education International Programme Global Pilots for 2024, Finnish Indian Consortia for Research and Education (FICORE). The authors also extend their gratitude to FICORE for supporting the research visit of the lead author to the University of Turku, Finland, related to this work. The authors thank the Central Research Facility and Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Delhi, for providing the necessary mechanical and metallurgical characterization facilities to carry out the work. The authors would also like to thank Citadel Securities India Markets Private Limited and Syrma SGS Technology Limited for financially supporting the material characterization facilities used for the present study. We sincerely thank Aki Piiroinen for his invaluable assistance with the various laboratory activities. Prof. Authors acknowledges the financial support by AIIM (26005342), a project funded under FICORE, Seed Funding 2024. Additionally, Prof. Ashish Ganvir also acknowledges GREEN-BAT (Dnr 352517), co-funded by the Research Council of Finland and the European Union under the M-ERA.NET 2021 framework, as well as the SOLACE (Dnr 360540) Academy research fellowship, funded by the Research Council of Finland. He also extends his gratitude to the City of Turku for supporting his tenure-track grant. Moreover, Prof. Antti Salminen acknowledges financial support through the DREAMS project DREAMS TEKN TOT (2600577911) project, funded by Business Finland.
